Turkey-Syria Spat Over Downed Plane Threatens to Escalate the Conflict

Turkey’s president said Saturday that his country would do “whatever is necessary” in response to Syria’s shooting down of a Turkish military jet, adding to concerns about a an internationalization of the conflict in Syria.

“It is not possible to cover over a thing like this,” said President Abdullah Gul of Turkey. “Whatever is necessary will no doubt be done.”

In statements on Friday, Syria said that its military forces had shot down a Turkish jet that had entered its airspace. Turkey says the jet’s presence over Syrian territory was intended to be brief and not meant as a hostile act.

Syrian officials tried to ease the tension. “We have no hostile intentions against Turkey,” said Jihad Makdessi, a spokesman for the Syrian Foreign Ministry.

The Syrian and Turkish relationship went sour toward the beginning of the internal conflict in Syria after refugees swarmed over the border into Turkey. Since then, the Turkish government has been giving safe haven and weaponry to members of the rebel Free Syrian Army, who make cross-border attacks in Syria.

Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshiyar Zebari, said on Saturday that the downing of the plane and Turkey’s vow to respond indicate a dramatic escalation of the conflict, which will get much worse if there is too much “spillover” into neighboring countries.

“Our main concern is the spillover of the crisis into neighbouring countries,” Zebari said. “No country is immune from this spillover because of the composition of the societies, the extensions, the connections, the sectarian, ethnic dimensions,” he said.

The controversy also sheds light on how disastrous an international (and especially Western) military intervention against the Assad regime would be. Assad’s anti-aircraft capabilities have the capacity to shoot down planes overhead, and the sectarian divisions of Syria and the surrounding countries would exacerbate the bloodshed if the conflict is not contained.

Author: John Glaser

Oh, come on. A Turkish military plane gets shot down, apparently in Syrian airspace, while playing gotcha to test Syrian air defenses, so now NATO's going to use this as a casus belli. So where was NATO when the Zionist pirates murdered those Turkish citizens on the high seas?

james

They were sending reinforcements and more aid to the sh*tty little state and providing protection and deflection in the UN and trying to suppress their press from exposing the truth. Business as usual.

John Ellis

News perfection — Light that forces all corruption to give way

This is enlightenment of the absolute best kind, an aggressive act of war by Turkey that exemplifies Western corruption and their true intent. Surely something that Western media cannot warp or distort.

You underestimate the state capitalist imperialist media's ability to distort I am afraid. 🙁

james

Additionally, he underestimates the state of the idiocy of most of the inhabitants in these so called civilized nations.

Doug_in_Indiana

Sorry John. Remember Saddam Hussein threatening North America with nuclear bombs on drones or some such thing? The media published it with nary a second thought. Give Hilary, Vicki, and Susie a press conference or two and poor boobus will wet himself over the Syrian threat. If it were not so serious we would have to laugh every time the face of a lying president or accomplice appears on TV.

John Ellis

No-fly zone — Collateral murder is legal zone

The Western powers are pushing Syria to the limit, surely as this was a suicide attempt on the part of Turkey, to get their pilot killed so that a Libya style bomb everything no-fly zone can be put into full force and effect.

whiskeypapa

The aircraft was likely unmanned, the Turks are not as cold-blooded as the zionists, they would not sacrifice one of their pilots.

klyde

I'm guessing that the Turkish pilots had no idea where they were flying when they were shot down.

Duglarri

Syria should put out a bumper sticker. "If you're close enough to get shot down by an anti-aircraft gun, you're too close".

What on earth leg does Turkey think it can stand on if the plane was so close to an antiaircraft gun? You have to be within no more than three kilometres- or much, much less, and in addition, flying very, very low.

It's quite a claim that jets violate other country's airspace on a routine basis. Maybe Lebanon. But I don't think it would be a good policy to wander into Israel's airspace. The several civilian airliners that have in the past done so were shot down.

james

Sir, no civilian airplane has ever got inside the sh8tty little state's air space. They shot at least 2 civilian planes in international space and over the Mediterranean sea in cold blood, just like what they did to the flotilla although the shot airplanes were on routine flights.
Are you a troll?

08oo

CONFIRMED: US CIA Arming Terrorists in Syria
– by Tony Cartalucci – 2012-06-22
The West, led by the US and its Gulf State proxies, have been arming terrorists, while berating the Syrian government for "violating" a UN mandated ceasefire and for "failing to protect" its population. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va…

Hidden US-Israeli Military Agenda: "Break Syria into Pieces"
– by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky – 2012-06-16
The objective of the US sponsored armed insurgency is –with the help of Israel– to "Break Syria into Pieces". The "balkanisation of Syria" is to be carried out by fostering sectarian divisions, which will eventually lead to a "civil war" modelled on the former Yugoslavia. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va…

08oo

Here is the official Syrian News Agency posting about this:

Military Spokesman: Anti-Air Defenses Intercepted a Target That Violated Syrian Airspace Over Territorial Waters, Shot It Down West of Lattakia

A military spokesman issued the following statement: At 11:40 AM on 22/6/2012, an unidentified aerial target violated Syrian airspace, coming from the west at a very low altitude and at high speed over territorial waters, so the Syrian anti-air defenses counteracted with anti-aircraft artillery, hitting it directly as it was 1 kilometer away from land, causing it to crash into Syrian territorial waters west of Om al-Tuyour village in Lattakia province, 10 kilometers from the beach.
more: http://www.sana.sy/eng/21/2012/06/23/427102.htm

Official Syrian News Agency…hmmm… Isn't that just like quoting news from say, Pravda, during the Soviet Union days or FAUX News in the US circa 2012 or Egypt state news under Mubarak? Just sayin'…

Valerianus

Thanks for posting an alternative to the presstitutes of the Western media.

CanuckBC

It is a new "Tonkin Incident"? Since Turkey is a NATO member, NATO is supposed to help its member if attacked. Turkey jet was downed by Syria air defences as it definitely entered Syria's airspace. Nobody questions today this violation, but maybe tomorrow we will hear how evil Syria is to defend its borders. I am affraid this will be called Syria's aggression and two days from now NATO will start a "defensive" areal attack, I wiish my analysis is wrong.

Nathan

Turkish leaders are stupid. They’re already engaged in a proxy war with Syria by arming the terrorists, yet when their spy plane admittedly flies over Syrian territory and is shot down, the idiots start complaining. If Turkey had any guts it wouldn’t become a puppet of the western countries serving them by sending terrorists to kill the people in its neighborhood.

If Turkey had any guts it would have confronted Israelis who murdered 9 of them in international waters. They were scared to confront Israel because their master was a close ally of Israel and its (Turkey’s) NATO allies also scorned it by not answering its call for support.

The current leaders of Turkey bring shame to the good Turkish people who must kick them out of power.

Concerned

@Mike Ehlinghttp://nsnbc.wordpress.com/2012/06/15/east-west-s…
“ccording to a well placed Palestinian Intelligence Source in Turkey, the war on Syria and the co-operation between NATO, Turkey in particular, Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and the Israeli Intelligence Service Mossad have been operational as far back as 2010. According to the intelligence source, the killing of nine Turkish citizens on board the Turkish registered Gaza Freedom Flotilla vessel Mavi Marmara was such a joint operation.The information was published in an article written by Martin Iqbal. (38) Both the Commander of the LIFG, a.k.a. Tripoli Military Council, a.k.a. Free Syrian Army, Abdelhakim Belhadj and his second in command Harati were on board the Mavi Marmara to point out the targeted Turkish Muslim Brothers to the Israeli Forces assassins.

The operation had several utilities. To assassinate influential members of the Turkish Muslim Brotherhood who were opposed to a war on Syria. To boost the waining public support for Turkish P.M. R. Tayyip Erdogan due to the fact that he could publicly blast Israel. The increased public support enabled him to fire some of the most secular Generals of the Turkish High Command.(ibid.)”

david

The world has gone mad.

Jaime

Turkey had been asking for this. Turkey and his western masters should be careful because now they know that those S-300 are no toys.

R.C.

I've heard that it's not the S-300 that Syria has, but something older. While the present air defense system is certainly good enough to shoot down antiquated Vietnam war era F4's, this system would probably have a far harder time against the newer modern aircraft/bombers in the US/NATO arsenal. If the Syrians had the S-300, they'd have a much better chance against the newer jets (the Russians themselves presently use the very mdoern S-400 which isn't yet for export —this system can probably shoot down ANYTHING in the US/NATO arsenal).

Jaime

You're right, and I read that the Syrians didn't actually used missiles to shot down the F4, which though old in terms of its time of make has had several modernizations.

08oo

didn't actually used missiles?? What did they use? I do not understand?

Guest

anti-aircraft guns.short range, but can be just as effective if they hit.

Jaime

For high altitude fighters you use missiles and for low altitude you use anti aircraft guns.

MoT

Military pilots are not so stupid as to wander into another nations airspace without knowing full well what they're doing. They put the Syrians to the test and lost and old jet for their troubles.

08oo

not only test: NATO must take fresh espionage photos of the coast line in order to find suitable places for their nightly invasion into Syria.
Details in my posting below.

kumbayaga

Well Turkey is asking for big trouble…

The US-made F4 Phantom which can fly at over twice the speed of sound and was modernized by Israel a few years ago…was brought down by a Russian Pantsir anti-aircraft system…designed for low-level and close-in anti-aircraft defense…

Also in Syria is the formidable Russian S300 long range anti-aircraft missile system which can bring down anything in Nato's inventory…from a distance of 50 km or more…this is the same system that Russia sold to Iran but was then pressured by the West to abort the delivery…

If Turkey and Nato want to test the S300…well I'm going too kick back and enjoy the show…

peter vojta

Israel benefits again …neighbours figting each other??…Instead of forming united front against neverending Israels aggression….. Mavi Marmara forgoten? I dont understand Erdogan and Turkish people now. "Maybe I was wrong all the time and Zionist regime in Turkey is dream for Turkish people…!?!?"
Can anybody explain me behavior of Turkish government? /But not those translating God into Realestate Agent, please!/

Behavior of Turkish government can be easily explained: they're pigs just like the rest of the governments around the world. Just one part of the puzzle of the global cabal and the NWO.

Walter Cole

USAF pilots, flying those same F-4s back in South Korea during the Vietnam War used to fly in and out of North Korean airspace quite often, only to be reliving their adventures in the Officer´s Club that same night. They had their ECM systems turned on and many times an EC-121 was not far away, everybody checking out the location and response times of the enemy radar and SAM systems and what communications circuits got busy at the same time. It was a game for the pilots, but they mapped out the entire enemy´s air defense network. Our pilots could see the enemy locking on to their aircraft and watch the SAM system being turned on as well, only to jump back over the border before a SAM could be launched. The same tactics have been used over the cold war with the Soviet Union, even using commercial aircraft, believed to be safe from reprisals.

This Turkish pilot was either suicidal, belligerent, or the Syrians have something he couldn´t detect and paid the price.

zioctopus

Syria doing their best to diffuse the situation
that plane was only 1 km off their coastline
the pilot was hotdogging
if there is further bloodshed
the blame is on Turkey's PM

08oo

It is well known that the US terrorists that want to infiltrate into Syria are alraedy fighting in Norther Libanon and recently an US special forces ship headed to the persian gulf with aim Syrian coast. So NATO must take fresh espionage photos of the coast line in order to find suitable places for their nightly invasion into Syria.
See:
"U.S. sending floating naval base through the Suez Canal, A U.S. warship designed as a floating base for naval special forces is scheduled to transit through the Suez Canal for the first time as early as Friday, Navy officials say. " http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/21/navy-off…

R.C.

Apparently, the latest news is that NATO is discussing the issue now. They're going to decide what action (if any) should be taken. Since both parties seem to agree that the Turkish jet DID violate Syria's airspace (while Turkey is busy supplying "rebels" with camps along the border to come in and destabilize the country), then it should be a shut case. That's SHOULD.

What are the chances that the illegal Zionist entity is behind this incident?

08oo

Any headline here paves the way for in direction war – isn't this astonishing?

zioctopus

The shooting down of the Turkish F4 Phantom reconnaissance jet "is yet another reflection of the Syrian authorities' callous disregard for international norms, human life, and peace and security," Clinton added.